“The bone was completely shattered so there was nothing to left to save,” says Faroukh.

Since the accident, Nasser’s father, Mohammed, has been very apprehensive about walking in the fields around Mafraq Al Mocha.

“We know mines have been planted around the town, but the problem is we don’t know exactly where,”he says.

With only a handful of signs indicating the presence of mines and only a few red-painted stones showing where it’s safe to walk, every day a muffled bang signals that yet another explosive device has been triggered.

Yemen is in the grip of a brutal war

Since March 2015, a Saudi and Emirati-led coalition has been fighting Ansar Allah forces, resulting in bombing, gun battles and widespread destruction. Ordinary people are bearing the brunt of the conflict.

Many hospitals have been destroyed and those still open are in urgent need of medical supplies. Yemenis are struggling to afford food and fuel due to unemployment and rising prices.

These conditions, combined with airstrikes and sniper fire, have turned this conflict into one of the worst man-made humanitarian crises in the world.

In early 2018, fighting intensified along the frontline between the cities of Taïz and Hodeidah.

In an effort to prevent the advance of the coalition’s ground troops, thousands of mines and improvised explosive devices were planted across the region’s roads and fields.

The principal victims of these lethal hazards have been unwitting civilians, many of whom have been killed or maimed for life.

By August 2018, MSF set up a hospital in the port city of Mocha, near Taïz, where teams perform emergency surgery on people injured by mines.

Punished twice

Before the war, the area between Mocha and the frontline was agricultural.

Since the fighting started, towns and villages near the combat zones – such as Hays and Mafraq Al Mocha, where MSF provides support to advanced medical posts – have seen many of their inhabitants flee.

The surrounding fields were mined to prevent the advance of military troops, but have had the added effect of making them impossible to cultivate.

In such agricultural areas, this has deprived local people of their livelihood and taken a heavy toll on families. In some places, such as the district of Mawza - a 45-minute drive from Mocha - the population has now halved.

“People who live here are punished – not once, but twice," says Claire Ha-Duong, MSF’s head of mission in Yemen.

"The mines not only blow up their children but also prevent them from cultivating their fields. They lose their source of income as well as food for their families."

Between August and December 2018, MSF’s teams in Mocha admitted and treated more than 150 people wounded by mines, improvised explosive devices and unexploded ordnance.

Around a third of them are children who had been playing in the fields. Disabled for life, they now face uncertain futures.

By creating generations of maimed people, mines have far-reaching repercussions – not only for individual families, but for society as a whole. Their victims are likely to be more dependent on others at the same time as being more socially isolated.

Mine clearance

Thousands upon thousands of explosive devices will endanger the lives of people in Yemen for decades to come.

In a recent report, UK-based organisation Conflict Armament Research pointed to Ansar Allah’s mass-production of mines and improvised explosive devices, as well as the use of anti-personnel, vehicle and naval mines.

A medical wasteland

Medical care is available in the city of Aden - a six to eight hour drive south of Hodeidah - where MSF also opened a specialist trauma hospital in 2012. However, many Yemeni's don't have the money to pay for transport to get there.

This has made the 450 km distance between the two cities into a medical wasteland for the people who live there.

MSF’s hospital in Mocha is now the only facility in the region with an operating theatre and the capacity to perform surgery.

“The coastal region between Hodeidah and Aden is rural and extremely poor. People have no access to medical treatment and our hospital is the only place they can go when they need surgery,” says Husni Abdallah, a nurse in the operating theatre.

“They’re essentially patients with war wounds. Some don’t manage to get to Mocha in time and die of injuries that could have been treated. Or, they’re pregnant women who die during labour due to a lack of adequate medical care.